Portland, I am in you! I arrived Monday night and attended an amazing pre-conference yesterday (more on that later). And of course my colleagues and I had to make a pilgrimage to the City of Books, Powell’s Books.
We spent plenty of time wandering around Powell’s literal city block of books. I was especially captivated by their self-directed marketing. There were shelf-talkers of all kinds everywhere! I really want to replicate some of that when I get home.
This was their display of Kid Picks, each suggestion written by a child patron. I love how they used a shelf talker to encourage more kids to participate, and I could definitely see libraries making this work!
They used shelf-talkers to suggest readalikes, point out critically-acclaimed books (so easy, you can just pull a quote from a review!), and highlight local interest titles.
I know shelf talkers are a little different for libraries since we often don’t have copies in quantity, but I bet we could make these work in some way.
Do you use shelf talkers in your library? How do you make them work for you?
Aryssa
This is on my schedule for tonight! Fingers crossed no rain!